June 10, 2025 • 29 mins
On this show Karolyn talks about the science of savoring with nutritionist and author Conner Middelmann who is the founder of the online community Savor. Conner is also a long-term cancer survivor and an accomplished chef and author. Conner will talk about what it means to savor, the research associated with savoring, and how to apply that research easily into your daily routine. It's time to savor the good life!
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Five To Thrive Live is broadcast live Tuesdays at 7PM ET and Music on W4CS Radio – The Cancer Support Network (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Five To Thrive Live Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guest should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
Caroline Gazella and I co host this show with my
good friend, doctor Lese Alschuler. I can't tell you how
excited I am about our show topic. Today. We'll be
talking about savoring, which is a concept that I have
tried to apply to my own wellness plan and end
my life in general. With me is a longtime colleague
(01:03):
and a friend who I truly admire because she is
so committed to helping cancer survivors thrive. Connor Mittlman is
Board certified in Holistic nutrition and a certified nutrition professional.
She is a long term cancer survivor, the founder of
the online community Saver, and an accomplished chef and author.
But before we dive in, I'd like to thank our sponsors.
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probiotics dot com. Connor, thank you so much for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Thank you so much for having me back. It's a delight.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yes, you are doing such great work. So let's start
with the basics. What does it mean to savor?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yes, savoring is something I hadn't really heard about until
maybe two years ago, and many people haven't either, although
it's been well studied in the psychological psychology area since
the nineteen nineties. It's a branch of positive psychology. So
to put it simply, it is the practice of being
(03:22):
mindful and fully present before, during, and after positive experiences,
actively noticing and appreciating these experiences. So that's the official definition.
I love the way that doctor Fred Bryant, who kind
of came up with this concept, he calls it it's
like swishing a positive experience around in your mind. It's
(03:44):
almost like swishing a good mouthful of wine in your
mouth to kind of really enjoy all those aromas. And
so it's not the same as pleasure, which is more fleeting.
Savoring enhances positive experiences because we slow down to really
enjoy them. And that helps us create longer lasting and
deeper memories of these good times. So really we can
(04:07):
say that anything that's positive, and that's one of the
great things about it is it's so simple. You can
just notice something positive, slow down, really enjoy it, and
then move on with your day.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I love that swishing a positive experience in your mind.
As you know, Connor, I also like a nice, good
glass of red wine, so that resonates with me. So
why did you become so personally passionate about the concept
of savoring?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I don't generally experience epiphanies,
but on my fiftieth birthday, somebody sent me a poem
by Mary Oliver called The Summer Day, and the last
two lines of that poem are tell me, what is
it you plan to do with your one, wild and
precious life? You and many of your listeners have probably
(04:58):
come across as it's quite frequent that you bump into
it on Instagram, but I had never heard it before,
and it just hit me like a sledgehammer to the
head because at the time my life had become anything
but precious. It was kind of like a constant chore.
I was juggling a hundred balls, and I felt frazzled
(05:19):
and overwhelmed all the time. And I really had a
sense that my life kept accelerating and was actually passing
me by. So I decided to slow down. I kind
of had to. My health also forced me to and
figure out what really matters to me, and that turned
out to be really just two simple things that money
can't buy. One is authentic positive relationships, both in my
(05:43):
personal and in my professional life, and the other was
just in a piece. I know that sounds kind of
but I just couldn't sleep. I was constantly stressed. I
had to do lists as long as both arms, and
I just wanted that to stop. I wanted to get
off that crazy train, and so I started learning various
mindfulness practices. At the time, mindfulness was really becoming quite popular,
(06:06):
and that eventually led me to savoring. And what I
love about savoring is that, whereas mindfulness can be quite
austere and frankly a little boring, you just sit there
and you're noticing the present moment, it's like mindfulness with
a twist, where you're noticing the present moment and then
you're going, oh, and I'm liking the present moment, I
am going to swish that around in my mind a
little longer and really enjoy the present moment. So now
(06:30):
I've integrated this approach in my work because a lot
of my clients have the same crazy, busy lifestyles that
I used to have, and I increasingly talk with them
about savoring their food but also savoring exercise, you know,
exchanges with people, you know, petting, snuggling with your cat.
I mean, you can savor pretty much at anything, and
(06:54):
to my surprise, they're very receptive to it. I sometimes say, yeah,
I know, this doesn't really seem like a nutrition consupt
and they usually go, no, no, this is all part
of it, and of course it is so. And in
my own life, I'm happy to say I have now
really managed to bring these two priorities to my life.
Relationships and peace are now increasingly what you know provides
(07:17):
meaning to my life, and everything else seems much less
important than it used to.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
That's great. And you know, Lisa is a big fan
of Mary Oliver, and we have been using that quote
in our presentations for years and years and years. So
I love that quote, and I love Mary Aliver obviously,
so Okay, well, let's switch over into the science of savoring.
What does a research say about the health benefits of savoring?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, again, it seems kind of woolly, and you would think, oh,
how can you possibly research that? But it actually starts
with that negativity bias. I'm sure you've heard of it.
We come hardwired with a sort of baseline setting of
expecting the worst. Humans just focus much more on negative
events and emotions than positive ones. And I noticed that
(08:04):
just yesterday. I was going for my morning hike and
I bumped into a person who greeted me warmly and
we had a lovely exchange. And then I walked past
someone who ignored me, and I was much more emotionally
invested in why did she not say hello to me?
And I didn't know that I was in that lovely,
positive exchange I had minutes earlier. So we kind of
noticed the negative more, and savoring is kind of an antidote.
(08:30):
Of course, it's important, and especially during evolution, it was
very important for humans to be able to notice danger,
you know, threats, thunderstorms, fires, and predators. But nowadays, especially
because we're always so busy, this this negative, negative sort
of bias really keeps us in a chronic state of
stress and prevents us from joining enjoying the present because
(08:51):
we're always in the past or the future, worrying and
feeling upset or resentful. And again, we know from a
large body of research that and you're in that negative place,
you're much more prone to developing anxiety and depression and
sleeping badly and just feeling generally frazzled and stressed. So
savoring is the opposite of that. It's really an antidote
(09:13):
to this distracted way of life because it forces us
in a way to slow down and focus intentionally on
positive experiences like that smile I exchanged with the woman
on the hiking trail, And so it also helps us
slow down our perception of time. It's like times passes
a bit more slowly, and it just makes our lives
(09:35):
feel a lot fuller and richer because we're actually present
to our lives. So I won't rattle off a bunch
of citations, but I have written a blog post that
your listeners are very welcome to go and check out
on my website. It's called The Sweet Science of Savoring,
just as this show is, and it's really about how
(09:55):
this ability to savor can lead to a generally happier life,
and for instance, studies have shown that people are generally
happier children even who savor are more self confident in
primary school. People who are open to savoring are also
more open to learning. They're less prone to feel depressed
(10:18):
or anxious. Interestingly, they've done some studies in cancer caregivers,
and even there they found that people who were able
to savor were less prone to feeling distressed and stressed, obsessive,
compulsive disordered, anxiety disorder, you name it. Even improved long
distance romantic relationships because when people don't see much of
(10:40):
each other, they really save are the times they do
have together. So it's just a very beautiful body of research.
I had so much fun reading these studies and just
going ah, you know, life can be so sweet if
only you slow down and actually notice all the good stuff,
which is why I changed the tagline of my nutrition
business to Savor the good and save the life, because
(11:01):
there is so much good stuff that we often miss.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, it's you know, the mental health benefits and some
of the benefits that you've just mentioned are not surprising
to me. Are there any studies showing that there are
physical health benefits or is it primarily the mental health
reduce stress, you're just happier, You're more positive anythink about
(11:24):
physical health.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So to my knowledge, not directly, but of course indirectly,
happier people, calmer people also tend to take the time
to cook meals and eat them calmly and digest them well.
And when you sleep better, you tend to, you know,
have a more positive outlook on life. So I think
it's more of an indirect relationship than a direct one.
(11:50):
But again, we do know, for instance, that chronic stress
causes elevated cortisol and that is then linked with inflammation.
So unfortunately I haven't come across a search showing direct
physical benefits, and that would definitely be something to explore.
I do know that mindfulness practice per se is linked
(12:11):
to reduced glucose, blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels, inflammation. So
again there's a lot of all these This research is
sort of overlapping, and that's I think where we're going
to see more benefits becoming apparent over.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Time, right, and the work that you do and the
work that we do, we know that there's such a
significant connection between mind and body anyway, and they go
hand in hand really, So Okay, what are some practical
ways to add savoring into our regular routines.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I mean they're actually quite simple and easy. Sort
of many different ways you can do that. But the
first step is difficult, which is to slow down, because
if you're rushing, that literally means you can't save it.
It's like pressing your accelerator and your break at the
same time. So one of the things I often recommend is,
(13:07):
for instance, keep your phone at arm's length when you
get up in the morning. Start by savoring your coffee.
Start by savoring the song, the bird song, or you're
hearing through the open window. And another way to kind
of slow down is just to schedule yourself carefully so
that you don't overschedule yourself, leaving gaps in your day,
(13:28):
so you can just check in with yourself every now
and then and almost go, oh, is there anything pleasant
right now that I could be savoring? Like, right now,
I'm savoring this conversation, although I'm not as relaxed as
I might be if we were having a glass of
wine together. But I think as soon as you can
take a little break, and some people actually have a
little reminder on their phone that says, hey, take a break,
(13:49):
you know, five minutes of just breathing and relaxing. And
then immediately when you're in that relaxed state, you start
noticing all sorts of things that you can appreciate. And
then the next step is actually noticing. So again, we
see lots of things throughout the day without really noticing them,
so just simply paying attention to things like I don't
(14:12):
know the minty flavor of your dental floss, or I
discovered this winter I bought a new bathrobe and I
was wearing it in the mornings to meditate, and it
was unbelievably soft, and I noticed I kept kind of
rubbing my fingers over the bathrobe and thinking, oh, this
is so lovely, And of course I was savoring, you know,
without really doing it intentionally. Or when I go walking,
(14:34):
I used to wear ear pods and listen to podcasts
and they called the earbuds, that's right, And then I
realized I was really missing out on my walk. So
now I leave the headphones at home and I just
go for a walk. And I hear birds, especially now
in springtime, and that's a wonderful way to start. So
(14:55):
your physical senses are often the best way to get
into savory by looking around and seeing things that are
pleasing to the eye in nature, especially now, it could
be flowers or you know, insects, but there's even in
the winter, I often think, you know, ice, icicles, ice
formations can be really cool to look at. And in fact,
(15:17):
one of the bits of advice that the savoring researchers
give is if you see something that you think is
appealing in some way, take a picture of it, because
that deepens the experience further, and then you can even
re experience it later when you look at that picture
or you send it to someone and you say, hey,
look at this beautiful flower I saw today. So eyes
can be a great way to save it. Another one
(15:39):
is hearing listening, paying attention to sounds, whether it's natural
sounds or music. You know, I've noticed that when I
listen to music without doing anything else, the music is
so much richer than if I'm cooking or you know,
working or something. And that doesn't mean you always have
to sit there listening in rap silence to your music,
but just a minute, pay attention to the base or
(16:01):
something like that, and immediately you have a richer experience.
Another one I just mentioned touching, you know, petting your cat,
or feeling a lovely fabric or you know, the dewy
grass under your bare feet. A lot of it is
very physical. It's very embodied, so you can use your
body as a savoring instrument, but then also having connections
(16:22):
with other people, eye contact, smiles, and really noticing how
how that resonates in your body. I've noticed over time
that it seems to activate my heart region. When I
have a positive exchange with someone, I feel as sort
of slight glow in the region of my heart. So
(16:44):
those are just some of the things that you might
you know, you might try again in a second post
I put on my blog. I actually have a lot
of other suggestions as well, and I think everyone you know,
some people are more visual, others are more sensual or intellectual.
So anything's good as long as you're enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, that's great. I just actually got back from a
camping trip for my godson's twelfth birthday, and we were
off grid, no cell coverage, no nothing, and it was
lovely hanging out with my twelve year old taking pictures.
As you said, hiking with the dogs, rate by the river,
(17:28):
totally unplugging. I'm going to make a point to do
that a lot more often. So these are all great suggestions. Now,
I'd like to talk a little bit about the Mediterranean
diet because doctor Alschuler and I talk about that a lot.
It's one of the most research diets. You, of course,
are known for your Mediterranean cooking and the books that
(17:51):
you've written. How does following a Mediterranean diet encourage savoring?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, I mean again, I think one of the reasons
I decided I really loved working in this way with
my clients is that it has such a focus on enjoyment,
whereas many other diets, even I don't even want to
call it because it's not really a diet, but many
other sort of food systems tend to focus a lot
(18:17):
on rules and foods that you're not allowed to eat
or foods that you should be eating all the time,
and that I think takes a bit of the fun
out of it. So having access to, you know, just
all foods and really enjoying them without guilt. Again, a
lot of us have a lot of guilt and fear
of food, and there's even a sort of disordered eating
(18:40):
pattern called authorexia that's becoming more and more common in
this country and generally in industrialized countries where a lot
of people live in fear of food because they think
it's going to cause all sorts of health problems, which
actually it almost never does, or very rarely. So that's
one of the first things. They really celebrate food, and
they celebrate life through food. It's an opportunity to connect
(19:02):
with other people. In fact, in my first books Zest
for Life, I quoted a wonderful study that was conducted
by a team of French sociologists who went around different
countries asking people in focus groups what does healthy food
or healthy eating mean to you? And so the American
and the British focus groups all said, well, healthy food
(19:26):
means getting enough fiber, getting vitamins, getting protein, not eating
too many calories. And then when they asked the French,
Italian and Spanish respondents, they said sharing food with friends
and family, enjoyment. Enjoyment came up like seventy times, conviviality, pleasure,
(19:47):
and there wasn't a single mention of fiber. And that's
not to say fiber and vitamins aren't important of course
they are, and they are a very big part of
this Mediterranean eating pattern. But I think this attitude of
really enjoying your food and sharing it with others is
really what savoring is about in the context of nutrition.
(20:08):
And in fact, there's research showing that when we eat
food with other people, we secrete a hormone called oxytocin,
which is a love hormone. So it's actually, you know,
it just lifts your whole mood and sense of happiness
and connectedness. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Absolutely, And I'm going to add one more because one
of the reasons we promote the Mediterranean diet is because
it appears to us, and you're right, it's not really
a diet. It's a way of life. It's a way
of living, a way of eating. It seems that what
you mentioned earlier, like all of your senses, the Mediterranean
(20:45):
diet is so good at engaging all of your senses,
so you're you're seeing visually it's it's beautiful, and the
smells and the sights and sounds and every everything else,
it's it becomes a very sensual experience. Any Yeah, and
I think that that lends its wealth to savoring.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Absolutely, And in fact, I think even it starts when
you're cooking, when you're chopping your fresh oregano or rosemary
or garlic or whatever, and all these aromas that are
wafting around even before you eat. Again, we know that
that stimulates all your digestive juices, and so by the
time you sit down, your body's already expecting to digest
(21:28):
and absorb nutrients. Again, many of us eat in ways
that are very rushed and fleeting, and often not even
sitting down, and so our bodies are not really ready
to receive food. So I think this whole process of
thinking about what am I going to eat today, preparing
that meal, and it can be a very simple meal.
It doesn't have to be anything complicated, and then, like
you say, eating it. And then sometimes I also teach
(21:50):
mindful eating courses where we actually sit down and we
notice what flavors, what textures, what colors, what aromas are
we picking up from this meal, and it can just
make for such a rich experience, ideally without watching television
at the same time, because then again you're multitasking and
it doesn't really work that well. Yeah, and actually, one
(22:13):
mini plug I'd love to make is on my community saver,
I teach cook a Long classes where we all cook
together and we make these Mediterranean meals together. We're all
on Zoom. I send them the recipes beforehand, and then
we cook together, and it's absolutely wonderful. First of all,
we're all connecting in a really warm and sort of
(22:33):
convivial way. But also people will say, oh, I love
how the rosemary smells when it hits the olive oil,
and things like that. So the whole experience can be very,
very life affirming, and I would love to welcome your listeners.
It's free, so all you need to do is sign
in and you can find the link on my website.
We can talk about that later, but cook a Long
(22:54):
Class is a very fun way to connect with that
part of savoring.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I would highly recommend that because if you I got
to cook alongside Connor when we lived in the same city,
which was very special, So if you get to do
that with her now over Zoom, I highly recommend it.
So let's let's talk a little bit about your about
your website, because I know that there is a three
(23:22):
minute meditation, a savoring meditation that you love, so let's
start there. Tell us about that and what people can
expect when they go to the site and they try
to do this meditation. And I have to admit I
was camping, so I didn't get a chance to do
the meditation yet. But I'm definitely all signed up and
ready to rock and roll there. So tell us about Yeah,
(23:43):
tell us about the meditation, and then tell us more
about your website.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Thank you, Yes, absolutely so. This is actually the meditation
isn't even up yet, so I've recorded it and I'm
going to post it in the next few days. I'm
a bit of a perfectionist and I still need to
do a bit of editing. But it's basically it's like
so many guided meditations that you can you can find,
except that's the only savoring meditation I know of. It's
(24:07):
called Savor the Moment, and it's actually based on the
work of a woman called Megan mcdonnald, who I think
is a sort of mindfulness teacher, and she turns savor
into an acronym, and I kind of wish I had
come up with that, but it's beautiful, and so I
just want to make sure I give her the credit.
It stands for sense, so sensing. As we talked about
(24:29):
what's going on, around you appreciate. That's really that positive
experience of what you're sensing vitalized, which really means how
this brings a sense of vitality or a liveness to
your body and your mind. Oh stands for open your heart.
So really that's that swishing, that's that lovely enjoying of
(24:51):
that sensation and maybe also wishing that others might be
able to have that experience. And then the R stands
for rest, allow yourself to rest in this feeling and
letting it resonate a little longer before you go back
to your day. And I just love I do this
regularly in my own meditation practice, and it just is
(25:13):
such a lovely, rich experience. And at the same time,
though there's a thread, the acronym savo R sort of
guides you through it so you're not lost and then
thinking about your shopping list. So I'll be posting that
very soon to savor the community. That's an online community.
That is, it's a private membership community, but as I said,
(25:34):
it doesn't cost anything to join, and so that's where
I share videos. We also interview people like we recently
had a mindful eating expert on doctor Michelle May We've
had some researchers on who talked about cancer and insulin resistance.
So we have a mix of nutrition science but also
(25:55):
just deliciousness, food savoring, physical activity, man stress, improving our sleep.
I try to support people in these areas because I
think they're all just part of living a really rich
and fulfilling life. Yeah, and the.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Website is savorcommunity dot com correct exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So when you land there, it'll ask you to sign in.
You just put in your name and email address and
then you're in. And if you if you're brave enough,
you can go and introduce yourself in the Hello space.
But if not, you can just you know, lurk in
the shadows for a bit. But I do encourage people
to engage, to like things, to comment on things, and
to attend some of these events because they're really really fun,
(26:38):
you know, when people come together and support each other.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, so savor Community dot com, I highly recommend go
and join that community. And then you also do nutritional consulting.
So what's that website.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
That is it's a longer one modern Mediterranean dot com,
but it's all one word, no dots or hyphens, and yeah,
that's where you can find out more about my one
on one nutrition counseling. I also teach group programs for
mindful eating and that's also where I have about one
(27:10):
hundred and forty recipes that are all based in this
Mediterranean way of eating.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, that's great. That's a great resource. And then the
Savior community has a ton of content, So if you
are looking for trusted content about really important topics for
cancer survivors, I would highly suggest go to savorcommunity dot com. Well,
this has been great, Connor, thank you again for joining me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Sorry, one
last quick plug. I also give teach three webinars at
the Boulder Community Health Cancer Center, and you can find
the links to that on my website as well.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I remember that I have attended very strong.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Yes, that's so great. So since some of your listeners
are cancer survivors or even undergoing treatment right now, that
could be another really helpful resource for them.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Absolutely, that's good. That's good.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Well good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I feel like we can learn so much from cancer
survivors like you, especially such talented ones as you do.
So thank you for the work that you're doing, and
thanks again for being on the show. So that wraps
up this episode of five to Thrive Live once again.
I'd like to thank our sponsors Pro Thrivers Wellness, Sleep Formula, Cetria,
Glueta Thione the superior glutathione to support liver and immune health,
(28:25):
Cognizance Citicolin to help enhance memory, focus and attention, and
Doctor Ohira's award winning shelf Stable probiotic. May you experience joy,
laughter and love, and may you savor every moment. It's
time to thrive. Everyone, have a good night.
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guest should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
Caroline Gazella and I co host this show with my
good friend, doctor Lese Alschuler. I can't tell you how
excited I am about our show topic. Today. We'll be
talking about savoring, which is a concept that I have
tried to apply to my own wellness plan and end
my life in general. With me is a longtime colleague
(01:03):
and a friend who I truly admire because she is
so committed to helping cancer survivors thrive. Connor Mittlman is
Board certified in Holistic nutrition and a certified nutrition professional.
She is a long term cancer survivor, the founder of
the online community Saver, and an accomplished chef and author.
But before we dive in, I'd like to thank our sponsors.
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probiotics dot com. Connor, thank you so much for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Thank you so much for having me back. It's a delight.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yes, you are doing such great work. So let's start
with the basics. What does it mean to savor?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yes, savoring is something I hadn't really heard about until
maybe two years ago, and many people haven't either, although
it's been well studied in the psychological psychology area since
the nineteen nineties. It's a branch of positive psychology. So
to put it simply, it is the practice of being
(03:22):
mindful and fully present before, during, and after positive experiences,
actively noticing and appreciating these experiences. So that's the official definition.
I love the way that doctor Fred Bryant, who kind
of came up with this concept, he calls it it's
like swishing a positive experience around in your mind. It's
(03:44):
almost like swishing a good mouthful of wine in your
mouth to kind of really enjoy all those aromas. And
so it's not the same as pleasure, which is more fleeting.
Savoring enhances positive experiences because we slow down to really
enjoy them. And that helps us create longer lasting and
deeper memories of these good times. So really we can
(04:07):
say that anything that's positive, and that's one of the
great things about it is it's so simple. You can
just notice something positive, slow down, really enjoy it, and
then move on with your day.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I love that swishing a positive experience in your mind.
As you know, Connor, I also like a nice, good
glass of red wine, so that resonates with me. So
why did you become so personally passionate about the concept
of savoring?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I don't generally experience epiphanies,
but on my fiftieth birthday, somebody sent me a poem
by Mary Oliver called The Summer Day, and the last
two lines of that poem are tell me, what is
it you plan to do with your one, wild and
precious life? You and many of your listeners have probably
(04:58):
come across as it's quite frequent that you bump into
it on Instagram, but I had never heard it before,
and it just hit me like a sledgehammer to the
head because at the time my life had become anything
but precious. It was kind of like a constant chore.
I was juggling a hundred balls, and I felt frazzled
(05:19):
and overwhelmed all the time. And I really had a
sense that my life kept accelerating and was actually passing
me by. So I decided to slow down. I kind
of had to. My health also forced me to and
figure out what really matters to me, and that turned
out to be really just two simple things that money
can't buy. One is authentic positive relationships, both in my
(05:43):
personal and in my professional life, and the other was
just in a piece. I know that sounds kind of
but I just couldn't sleep. I was constantly stressed. I
had to do lists as long as both arms, and
I just wanted that to stop. I wanted to get
off that crazy train, and so I started learning various
mindfulness practices. At the time, mindfulness was really becoming quite popular,
(06:06):
and that eventually led me to savoring. And what I
love about savoring is that, whereas mindfulness can be quite
austere and frankly a little boring, you just sit there
and you're noticing the present moment, it's like mindfulness with
a twist, where you're noticing the present moment and then
you're going, oh, and I'm liking the present moment, I
am going to swish that around in my mind a
little longer and really enjoy the present moment. So now
(06:30):
I've integrated this approach in my work because a lot
of my clients have the same crazy, busy lifestyles that
I used to have, and I increasingly talk with them
about savoring their food but also savoring exercise, you know,
exchanges with people, you know, petting, snuggling with your cat.
I mean, you can savor pretty much at anything, and
(06:54):
to my surprise, they're very receptive to it. I sometimes say, yeah,
I know, this doesn't really seem like a nutrition consupt
and they usually go, no, no, this is all part
of it, and of course it is so. And in
my own life, I'm happy to say I have now
really managed to bring these two priorities to my life.
Relationships and peace are now increasingly what you know provides
(07:17):
meaning to my life, and everything else seems much less
important than it used to.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
That's great. And you know, Lisa is a big fan
of Mary Oliver, and we have been using that quote
in our presentations for years and years and years. So
I love that quote, and I love Mary Aliver obviously,
so Okay, well, let's switch over into the science of savoring.
What does a research say about the health benefits of savoring?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, again, it seems kind of woolly, and you would think, oh,
how can you possibly research that? But it actually starts
with that negativity bias. I'm sure you've heard of it.
We come hardwired with a sort of baseline setting of
expecting the worst. Humans just focus much more on negative
events and emotions than positive ones. And I noticed that
(08:04):
just yesterday. I was going for my morning hike and
I bumped into a person who greeted me warmly and
we had a lovely exchange. And then I walked past
someone who ignored me, and I was much more emotionally
invested in why did she not say hello to me?
And I didn't know that I was in that lovely,
positive exchange I had minutes earlier. So we kind of
noticed the negative more, and savoring is kind of an antidote.
(08:30):
Of course, it's important, and especially during evolution, it was
very important for humans to be able to notice danger,
you know, threats, thunderstorms, fires, and predators. But nowadays, especially
because we're always so busy, this this negative, negative sort
of bias really keeps us in a chronic state of
stress and prevents us from joining enjoying the present because
(08:51):
we're always in the past or the future, worrying and
feeling upset or resentful. And again, we know from a
large body of research that and you're in that negative place,
you're much more prone to developing anxiety and depression and
sleeping badly and just feeling generally frazzled and stressed. So
savoring is the opposite of that. It's really an antidote
(09:13):
to this distracted way of life because it forces us
in a way to slow down and focus intentionally on
positive experiences like that smile I exchanged with the woman
on the hiking trail, And so it also helps us
slow down our perception of time. It's like times passes
a bit more slowly, and it just makes our lives
(09:35):
feel a lot fuller and richer because we're actually present
to our lives. So I won't rattle off a bunch
of citations, but I have written a blog post that
your listeners are very welcome to go and check out
on my website. It's called The Sweet Science of Savoring,
just as this show is, and it's really about how
(09:55):
this ability to savor can lead to a generally happier life,
and for instance, studies have shown that people are generally
happier children even who savor are more self confident in
primary school. People who are open to savoring are also
more open to learning. They're less prone to feel depressed
(10:18):
or anxious. Interestingly, they've done some studies in cancer caregivers,
and even there they found that people who were able
to savor were less prone to feeling distressed and stressed, obsessive,
compulsive disordered, anxiety disorder, you name it. Even improved long
distance romantic relationships because when people don't see much of
(10:40):
each other, they really save are the times they do
have together. So it's just a very beautiful body of research.
I had so much fun reading these studies and just
going ah, you know, life can be so sweet if
only you slow down and actually notice all the good stuff,
which is why I changed the tagline of my nutrition
business to Savor the good and save the life, because
(11:01):
there is so much good stuff that we often miss.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, it's you know, the mental health benefits and some
of the benefits that you've just mentioned are not surprising
to me. Are there any studies showing that there are
physical health benefits or is it primarily the mental health
reduce stress, you're just happier, You're more positive anythink about
(11:24):
physical health.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So to my knowledge, not directly, but of course indirectly,
happier people, calmer people also tend to take the time
to cook meals and eat them calmly and digest them well.
And when you sleep better, you tend to, you know,
have a more positive outlook on life. So I think
it's more of an indirect relationship than a direct one.
(11:50):
But again, we do know, for instance, that chronic stress
causes elevated cortisol and that is then linked with inflammation.
So unfortunately I haven't come across a search showing direct
physical benefits, and that would definitely be something to explore.
I do know that mindfulness practice per se is linked
(12:11):
to reduced glucose, blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels, inflammation. So
again there's a lot of all these This research is
sort of overlapping, and that's I think where we're going
to see more benefits becoming apparent over.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Time, right, and the work that you do and the
work that we do, we know that there's such a
significant connection between mind and body anyway, and they go
hand in hand really, So Okay, what are some practical
ways to add savoring into our regular routines.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I mean they're actually quite simple and easy. Sort
of many different ways you can do that. But the
first step is difficult, which is to slow down, because
if you're rushing, that literally means you can't save it.
It's like pressing your accelerator and your break at the
same time. So one of the things I often recommend is,
(13:07):
for instance, keep your phone at arm's length when you
get up in the morning. Start by savoring your coffee.
Start by savoring the song, the bird song, or you're
hearing through the open window. And another way to kind
of slow down is just to schedule yourself carefully so
that you don't overschedule yourself, leaving gaps in your day,
(13:28):
so you can just check in with yourself every now
and then and almost go, oh, is there anything pleasant
right now that I could be savoring? Like, right now,
I'm savoring this conversation, although I'm not as relaxed as
I might be if we were having a glass of
wine together. But I think as soon as you can
take a little break, and some people actually have a
little reminder on their phone that says, hey, take a break,
(13:49):
you know, five minutes of just breathing and relaxing. And
then immediately when you're in that relaxed state, you start
noticing all sorts of things that you can appreciate. And
then the next step is actually noticing. So again, we
see lots of things throughout the day without really noticing them,
so just simply paying attention to things like I don't
(14:12):
know the minty flavor of your dental floss, or I
discovered this winter I bought a new bathrobe and I
was wearing it in the mornings to meditate, and it
was unbelievably soft, and I noticed I kept kind of
rubbing my fingers over the bathrobe and thinking, oh, this
is so lovely, And of course I was savoring, you know,
without really doing it intentionally. Or when I go walking,
(14:34):
I used to wear ear pods and listen to podcasts
and they called the earbuds, that's right, And then I
realized I was really missing out on my walk. So
now I leave the headphones at home and I just
go for a walk. And I hear birds, especially now
in springtime, and that's a wonderful way to start. So
(14:55):
your physical senses are often the best way to get
into savory by looking around and seeing things that are
pleasing to the eye in nature, especially now, it could
be flowers or you know, insects, but there's even in
the winter, I often think, you know, ice, icicles, ice
formations can be really cool to look at. And in fact,
(15:17):
one of the bits of advice that the savoring researchers
give is if you see something that you think is
appealing in some way, take a picture of it, because
that deepens the experience further, and then you can even
re experience it later when you look at that picture
or you send it to someone and you say, hey,
look at this beautiful flower I saw today. So eyes
can be a great way to save it. Another one
(15:39):
is hearing listening, paying attention to sounds, whether it's natural
sounds or music. You know, I've noticed that when I
listen to music without doing anything else, the music is
so much richer than if I'm cooking or you know,
working or something. And that doesn't mean you always have
to sit there listening in rap silence to your music,
but just a minute, pay attention to the base or
(16:01):
something like that, and immediately you have a richer experience.
Another one I just mentioned touching, you know, petting your cat,
or feeling a lovely fabric or you know, the dewy
grass under your bare feet. A lot of it is
very physical. It's very embodied, so you can use your
body as a savoring instrument, but then also having connections
(16:22):
with other people, eye contact, smiles, and really noticing how
how that resonates in your body. I've noticed over time
that it seems to activate my heart region. When I
have a positive exchange with someone, I feel as sort
of slight glow in the region of my heart. So
(16:44):
those are just some of the things that you might
you know, you might try again in a second post
I put on my blog. I actually have a lot
of other suggestions as well, and I think everyone you know,
some people are more visual, others are more sensual or intellectual.
So anything's good as long as you're enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, that's great. I just actually got back from a
camping trip for my godson's twelfth birthday, and we were
off grid, no cell coverage, no nothing, and it was
lovely hanging out with my twelve year old taking pictures.
As you said, hiking with the dogs, rate by the river,
(17:28):
totally unplugging. I'm going to make a point to do
that a lot more often. So these are all great suggestions. Now,
I'd like to talk a little bit about the Mediterranean
diet because doctor Alschuler and I talk about that a lot.
It's one of the most research diets. You, of course,
are known for your Mediterranean cooking and the books that
(17:51):
you've written. How does following a Mediterranean diet encourage savoring?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, I mean again, I think one of the reasons
I decided I really loved working in this way with
my clients is that it has such a focus on enjoyment,
whereas many other diets, even I don't even want to
call it because it's not really a diet, but many
other sort of food systems tend to focus a lot
(18:17):
on rules and foods that you're not allowed to eat
or foods that you should be eating all the time,
and that I think takes a bit of the fun
out of it. So having access to, you know, just
all foods and really enjoying them without guilt. Again, a
lot of us have a lot of guilt and fear
of food, and there's even a sort of disordered eating
(18:40):
pattern called authorexia that's becoming more and more common in
this country and generally in industrialized countries where a lot
of people live in fear of food because they think
it's going to cause all sorts of health problems, which
actually it almost never does, or very rarely. So that's
one of the first things. They really celebrate food, and
they celebrate life through food. It's an opportunity to connect
(19:02):
with other people. In fact, in my first books Zest
for Life, I quoted a wonderful study that was conducted
by a team of French sociologists who went around different
countries asking people in focus groups what does healthy food
or healthy eating mean to you? And so the American
and the British focus groups all said, well, healthy food
(19:26):
means getting enough fiber, getting vitamins, getting protein, not eating
too many calories. And then when they asked the French,
Italian and Spanish respondents, they said sharing food with friends
and family, enjoyment. Enjoyment came up like seventy times, conviviality, pleasure,
(19:47):
and there wasn't a single mention of fiber. And that's
not to say fiber and vitamins aren't important of course
they are, and they are a very big part of
this Mediterranean eating pattern. But I think this attitude of
really enjoying your food and sharing it with others is
really what savoring is about in the context of nutrition.
(20:08):
And in fact, there's research showing that when we eat
food with other people, we secrete a hormone called oxytocin,
which is a love hormone. So it's actually, you know,
it just lifts your whole mood and sense of happiness
and connectedness. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Absolutely, And I'm going to add one more because one
of the reasons we promote the Mediterranean diet is because
it appears to us, and you're right, it's not really
a diet. It's a way of life. It's a way
of living, a way of eating. It seems that what
you mentioned earlier, like all of your senses, the Mediterranean
(20:45):
diet is so good at engaging all of your senses,
so you're you're seeing visually it's it's beautiful, and the
smells and the sights and sounds and every everything else,
it's it becomes a very sensual experience. Any Yeah, and
I think that that lends its wealth to savoring.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Absolutely, And in fact, I think even it starts when
you're cooking, when you're chopping your fresh oregano or rosemary
or garlic or whatever, and all these aromas that are
wafting around even before you eat. Again, we know that
that stimulates all your digestive juices, and so by the
time you sit down, your body's already expecting to digest
(21:28):
and absorb nutrients. Again, many of us eat in ways
that are very rushed and fleeting, and often not even
sitting down, and so our bodies are not really ready
to receive food. So I think this whole process of
thinking about what am I going to eat today, preparing
that meal, and it can be a very simple meal.
It doesn't have to be anything complicated, and then, like
you say, eating it. And then sometimes I also teach
(21:50):
mindful eating courses where we actually sit down and we
notice what flavors, what textures, what colors, what aromas are
we picking up from this meal, and it can just
make for such a rich experience, ideally without watching television
at the same time, because then again you're multitasking and
it doesn't really work that well. Yeah, and actually, one
(22:13):
mini plug I'd love to make is on my community saver,
I teach cook a Long classes where we all cook
together and we make these Mediterranean meals together. We're all
on Zoom. I send them the recipes beforehand, and then
we cook together, and it's absolutely wonderful. First of all,
we're all connecting in a really warm and sort of
(22:33):
convivial way. But also people will say, oh, I love
how the rosemary smells when it hits the olive oil,
and things like that. So the whole experience can be very,
very life affirming, and I would love to welcome your listeners.
It's free, so all you need to do is sign
in and you can find the link on my website.
We can talk about that later, but cook a Long
(22:54):
Class is a very fun way to connect with that
part of savoring.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I would highly recommend that because if you I got
to cook alongside Connor when we lived in the same city,
which was very special, So if you get to do
that with her now over Zoom, I highly recommend it.
So let's let's talk a little bit about your about
your website, because I know that there is a three
(23:22):
minute meditation, a savoring meditation that you love, so let's
start there. Tell us about that and what people can
expect when they go to the site and they try
to do this meditation. And I have to admit I
was camping, so I didn't get a chance to do
the meditation yet. But I'm definitely all signed up and
ready to rock and roll there. So tell us about Yeah,
(23:43):
tell us about the meditation, and then tell us more
about your website.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Thank you, Yes, absolutely so. This is actually the meditation
isn't even up yet, so I've recorded it and I'm
going to post it in the next few days. I'm
a bit of a perfectionist and I still need to
do a bit of editing. But it's basically it's like
so many guided meditations that you can you can find,
except that's the only savoring meditation I know of. It's
(24:07):
called Savor the Moment, and it's actually based on the
work of a woman called Megan mcdonnald, who I think
is a sort of mindfulness teacher, and she turns savor
into an acronym, and I kind of wish I had
come up with that, but it's beautiful, and so I
just want to make sure I give her the credit.
It stands for sense, so sensing. As we talked about
(24:29):
what's going on, around you appreciate. That's really that positive
experience of what you're sensing vitalized, which really means how
this brings a sense of vitality or a liveness to
your body and your mind. Oh stands for open your heart.
So really that's that swishing, that's that lovely enjoying of
(24:51):
that sensation and maybe also wishing that others might be
able to have that experience. And then the R stands
for rest, allow yourself to rest in this feeling and
letting it resonate a little longer before you go back
to your day. And I just love I do this
regularly in my own meditation practice, and it just is
(25:13):
such a lovely, rich experience. And at the same time,
though there's a thread, the acronym savo R sort of
guides you through it so you're not lost and then
thinking about your shopping list. So I'll be posting that
very soon to savor the community. That's an online community.
That is, it's a private membership community, but as I said,
(25:34):
it doesn't cost anything to join, and so that's where
I share videos. We also interview people like we recently
had a mindful eating expert on doctor Michelle May We've
had some researchers on who talked about cancer and insulin resistance.
So we have a mix of nutrition science but also
(25:55):
just deliciousness, food savoring, physical activity, man stress, improving our sleep.
I try to support people in these areas because I
think they're all just part of living a really rich
and fulfilling life. Yeah, and the.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Website is savorcommunity dot com correct exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So when you land there, it'll ask you to sign in.
You just put in your name and email address and
then you're in. And if you if you're brave enough,
you can go and introduce yourself in the Hello space.
But if not, you can just you know, lurk in
the shadows for a bit. But I do encourage people
to engage, to like things, to comment on things, and
to attend some of these events because they're really really fun,
(26:38):
you know, when people come together and support each other.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, so savor Community dot com, I highly recommend go
and join that community. And then you also do nutritional consulting.
So what's that website.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
That is it's a longer one modern Mediterranean dot com,
but it's all one word, no dots or hyphens, and yeah,
that's where you can find out more about my one
on one nutrition counseling. I also teach group programs for
mindful eating and that's also where I have about one
(27:10):
hundred and forty recipes that are all based in this
Mediterranean way of eating.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, that's great. That's a great resource. And then the
Savior community has a ton of content, So if you
are looking for trusted content about really important topics for
cancer survivors, I would highly suggest go to savorcommunity dot com. Well,
this has been great, Connor, thank you again for joining me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Sorry, one
last quick plug. I also give teach three webinars at
the Boulder Community Health Cancer Center, and you can find
the links to that on my website as well.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I remember that I have attended very strong.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Yes, that's so great. So since some of your listeners
are cancer survivors or even undergoing treatment right now, that
could be another really helpful resource for them.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Absolutely, that's good. That's good.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Well good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I feel like we can learn so much from cancer
survivors like you, especially such talented ones as you do.
So thank you for the work that you're doing, and
thanks again for being on the show. So that wraps
up this episode of five to Thrive Live once again.
I'd like to thank our sponsors Pro Thrivers Wellness, Sleep Formula, Cetria,
Glueta Thione the superior glutathione to support liver and immune health,
(28:25):
Cognizance Citicolin to help enhance memory, focus and attention, and
Doctor Ohira's award winning shelf Stable probiotic. May you experience joy,
laughter and love, and may you savor every moment. It's
time to thrive. Everyone, have a good night.
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